Duncan the picture of Boiler intensity

December 08, 2005|JASON KELLY

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- As the pass floated across the floor to Purdue guard Cherelle George, the raucous crowd at Mackey Arena counted down the shot clock. Four ... three ... two ... It got down to one second when the ball arrived and George just tried to flip it in the general direction of the basket. It skidded off the rim and ricocheted from the backboard toward a Notre Dame blue jersey. Then a flash of white appeared from nowhere, No. 42 for Purdue, NorthWood High graduate Carol Duncan. She retrieved the loose ball and reset the shot clock for the Boilermakers, who worked their extended possession into two free throws to open an 18-point lead midway through the second half. When Duncan left the game with 5:27 to play, the audience stood to applaud her inspired performance. With her Nappanee roots, playing Notre Dame carries special significance for Duncan. She cried after Purdue's loss in South Bend last year, but led a celebrating band of teammates Wednesday night, high-stepping it off the court in celebration. "Being from up in that area, I think she was thinking she couldn't go home for Christmas," Purdue coach Kristy Curry said. "So she'll be all right now." Two points, three rebounds and one assist in seven minutes were Duncan's modest contributions to the box score, but she embodied the deciding traits in No. 24 Purdue's 65-54 win over Notre Dame. Intensity. Toughness. Hustle. That didn't go unnoticed among a home crowd tuned into intangibles. They roared for Duncan's screen on Irish freshman Lindsay Schrader, a collision better suited to a line of scrimmage than a mid-court stripe. And they howled when Jodi Howell's harassing defense on Irish point guard Megan Duffy drew a disputed foul instead of a five-second call. Combine that rugged style with the offensive flourish of Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton, Katie Gearlds, Aya Traore and Erin Lawless, and Purdue played a variation of old-school Big Ten football. Two points and a cloud of dust. Normally of a mind to mix it up at least as much as its opponent, Notre Dame retreated rather than stand toe-to-toe with Purdue. "I Kthink it was just more their intensity, their effort," Irish associate head coach Coquese Washington said after her third game substituting for Muffet McGraw, still missing with an undisclosed illness. "I think they just outplayed us and outhustled us in the first half and kind of got us back on our heels with their intensity." Wisdom-Hylton, not the usual source of Purdue's emotion, summoned enough to navigate the lane for a game-high 14 points, including 10 in the first half as the lead ballooned to 17 points. Curry has been nagging her to show that aggressive side, and a visit from the No. 10 team in the nation brought it out. "It's just a matter of her having a sense of urgency, not being so sweet and laid back," Curry said. "Like I tell her, she needs to brush her teeth with a sense of urgency. She just goes too slow for me most days." Notre Dame played slowly instead, sinking into quicksand 21 points deep in the second half before a survival instinct compelled the team to scrap back to within 11. But the Irish sank too far to recover more than respectability in the final score. "We got down by so much, so early," Washington said, "it was just tough to climb out of it in this place." Surrounded and suffocated all night, Duffy knew the futile feeling better than anyone. She foraged for 12 points on 4 of 11 shooting, but other than Courtney LaVere's 10, nobody else mustered much production. Keeping Duffy under constant duress with its relentless swarm, the Purdue defense established an intense tone Notre Dame did not match. "We were very, very passive on offense, back on our heels," Duffy said, "and that's not the character of our team."